Snake in the garden

So Owetu, an 11 year old boy and his friend (name slips my mind) were over at the house playing in the garden and were just on their way out the gate when they came running back to report that they had seen a large snake slither across the driveway and bury itself in the garden 'refuse'.

Now we are a family familiar to snakes. Ellery, when he was still a teenager, spent a week in a glass house with 7 (24/7) black mambas -- studying, doing homework, etc (him not the snakes) -- just to show that the snakes were not aggressive. (Mind you the snake park required me to sign an indemnity form!). But Ellery survived and went on to keep several snakes at home... including a python, puff adders, tree viper, and a skink (which is actually a harmless lizard).

 Ellery, being long away from home, it was now Andy's turn to hunt, find and capture the snake... which we were pretty sure was an adder of some kind. We also called the local game reserve office (uMngeni Valley Trust) and a game officer came over to assist. And shortly we captured a Night Adder. The game officer took the snake away to be released on a farm nearby.

And there is it...our night adder. 

The last wild creature we had in our garden was a couple of years ago -- a young vervet monkey.

 

Complements of Wikipedia...